In various settings, automated medication dispensing carts (ADCs), for example, exist for use in hospital operating rooms for dispensing medications to patients during surgery. For safety reasons, inventory control, and/or billing purposes, it may desirable to be able to determine (a) when a medical provider (e.g., anesthesiologist) administers a medication to a patient and (b) the type of medication administered. Such a need may be complicated in an anesthesia environment because medical providers (e.g., anesthesiologists) often need to access medications very quickly, so going through elaborate procedures to indicate what medications the medical provider (e.g., anesthesiologist) has administered can be problematic. Thus, a need exists for an efficient system that would allow quick access to needed items (e.g., medications) that could automatically sense whether the items (e.g., medications) are present in or absent from, for example, a storage location (e.g., ADC).